It seems that the Group Tuition Policy has led to quite a lot of students signing up to tutorials but the number that attend seems not to have changed. For example, for a tutorial last night, I had more than 10 on my list of attendees but only 3 attended - a similar number to the same tutorial last year.
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Group tuition and attendance
Monday, 9 Jan 2017, 11:38
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Tuition group policy
Monday, 7 Mar 2016, 00:10
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Edited by Patrick Andrews, Monday, 7 Mar 2016, 18:51
I went to a meeting about this in Milton Keynes on Friday. I think there are many advantages to increasing the amount of collaboration between tutors and also in allowing students more opportunities for tuition.
There seems to be an expectation amongst some of the OU management that this will lead to improved retention and progression. However, as far as I can see, it is mainly the very strong students that make use of the extra opportunities for tuition.
Group tuition policy
Thursday, 10 Sept 2015, 11:53
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There is an increasing encouragement of tutors working together on tutorials. This strikes me as a good idea and I find it quite exciting pedagogically. It should provide students with a wider range of support and also the ability to decide their priorities - for example, some sessions might be assignment focused whereas others might allow students to follow interests that might not be assessed.
However, the arrangements have been quite time consuming administratively as tutors have needed to coordinate tutorial timetables around the needs of another tutor. This is in addition to the constraints that tutors have anyway - perhaps including the needs of other jobs and family commitments.
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